Industry Updates

New innovations and industries are introduced into the Ask Afrika Orange Index®

08 Nov 2014

Taking service delivery to the next level - new innovations and industries are introduced into the Ask Afrika Orange Index®

Service delivery is an incredibly important part of aquiring and keeping customers. Consumers are becoming more discerning, and safegaurding a companys reputation through excellent service is key to a healthy bottom line. Each year Ask Afrika conducts a unique South African customer satisfaction benchmark survey. New winners will be announced at the 14th annual Ask Afrika Orange Index® Awards Conference, in Johannesburg at GIBS on 14 November and Cape Town at the TAJ on 19 November.

The Ask Afrika Orange Index® not only measures service within industries, but across industries. This breadth and depth helps to identify landscape changes, and to provide insights into the mass consumer trends informing the service improvement strategies of businesses.

Over the last decade or so we have seen how central the Ask Afrika Orange Index® customer service excellence benchmark has become in helping our organisation shape its customer delight philosophies. Its pleasing to see what started as a very small idea, has now grown, and continues to drive customer service excellence, and maintain it at the heart of many organisations. I always look forward to this time of the year when the results get announced, as it affords all of us an opportunity to learn from each other. I look forward to another exciting year ahead, as we all strive to lift the quality of service we offer to our customers," says Thabo Moabi, Regional Director: Southern Africa, at Multichoice Africa.

Elements included in the Ask Afrika Orange Index® in 2014 enable understanding the impact of all customer service pillars through: customer effort, overall reputation, treating customers fairly (TCF), first call resolution (FCR), and Net Promoter Score (NPS). Consistent drivers in the last three years are centred around understanding customer needs, communicating effectively, and empathising with customers.

Ask Afrika has added two innovations in 2014 to its Orange Index® survey. The first is the understanding of emotion in service encounters. A customers emotional journey across service touch points is measured.

Emotions influence attitudes that drive choices and behaviour. This will enable business to determine the contribution of emotions to how service is perceived versus other elements, says Sarina de Beer, MD of Ask Afrika.

Key service drivers are far removed from organisational processes. It is really down to the one-on-one interaction and whether companies are investing in understanding and empathising with a customer on an individual level.

The second innovation to the Ask Afrika Orange Index® in 2014, is that it now includes the biggest call-centre customer service benchmark in the South African market. The Call Centre Index will provide a ranking of the top call centres in South Africa, coupled with insight into how the call centre environment contributes or detracts from general service perceptions. It is a benchmark that allows companies and their teams to know where their call centre stands today, relative to their competitor set and the industry at large.

Encapsulating broad overarching trends is an imperative of the Orange Index® and that is why Ask Afrika endeavours to continually broaden the scope of industries covered. An industry is only included in the survey should sample sizes of that industry permit robust analysis. This year Ask Afrika has added many new industries bringing the total to 32 industries 155 companies.

The addition of industries enriches the Ask Afrika Orange Index® by allowing companies to have broader reference points with regards to the service they provide for their customers who are also customers of a myriad of other industries, says de Beer.

By covering a broad range of industries over the years, the Ask Afrika Orange Index® can provide diagnostics on the best performing brands. This ensures commercial viability of the index as it continues to demonstrate direct relevance to business performance. The index also has diagnostic value as it provides a multi-disciplinary analysis of service within a business environment, thereby providing great depth of understanding in the South African consumer landscape, which enables companies in various industries to connect with their clients, says Sarina de Beer, MD of Ask Afrika.

The longevity of the Ask Afrika Orange Index® lies in its ability to take into account paradigm shifts with regards to service trends. This has ensured that the survey consistently takes into account factors that drive customer service satisfaction.

Ask Afrika stays abreast of the latest thinking in customer service and experience measurement. Historically, service was firmly rooted in transactional and incidental element. Fast forward to this millennium, the focus has shifted to relationships with factors such as emotions, trust, and confidence bear much significance within the service value chain. There is a shift in focus to the values that a company upholds, says de Beer.

About the Ask Afrika Group:Over a period of almost two decades, Ask Afrika Group has grown to be the largest independent South African market research company. The company focuses on local relevance, benchmarked against the global context. Ask Afrika is a member of WIN/Gallup International and ESOMAR. Apart from its large South African footprint, Ask Afrika Group also operates in a dozen African continental territories.

Ask Afrika Group is well known for delivering strategic and large scale field projects and for creating benchmarks for industry. With regards to service excellence Ask Afrika Group is the preferred research partner across industries to co-craft customer service strategies through meaningful research methodologies across the value chain and customer service touch points.

TGI research, for which Ask Afrika Group owns the South African copyright, has an annual single source sample of 15 000 locally and 800 000 globally. It has a global geographic coverage of 70 markets, and measures services, products, media, and brands. Ask Afrikas knowledge of brands is extensive and as owner of the local TGI license, it is the leader in brand expertise in South Africa. TGI can provide a commercial alternative to industry media measurements. It is the perfect vehicle for brand positioning.

The Ask Afrika Groups exclusive product suite includes the Ask Afrika Orange Index®, the Trust Barometer, Radio Moods, TGI (Target Group Index), Ask Afrika ICON Brands and TGI Township, the Digital Barometer, the Lite Data Collection, the Behavioural Sciences Package and Gateway. Ask Afrika is proud of its exceptional service delivery, with offices based in Pretoria and Stellenbosch. For more information please visit the website: www.askafrika.co.za